Paying yourself first an admission of failure!

[StormRichards]

I think you need to do both from day 1 - hence the "pay yourself first" advice. Do that and you'll never get into financial trouble.

I totally agree.

I'm a proud proponent of Feed the Pig

[GoodSteward]

You do need to do both, but as I've been working through financial mess for years with myself and others I think the savings side edges out the responsible spending side, but only slightly. Even wise spending is still spending, and nobody gets rich spending. Saving is the only way to get wealthy. Overall I'd rather have 50k in a 401k and carrying 20k in debt than have no credit card debt and no retirement. Eventually, you will not be able to work. Just because you have no debt doesn't mean you have money. Having a source of income, to me, is more important than having no debt and being frugal.

As for expense tracking, for people like Steve, I'd imagine you've been doing it for so long you know what is within your means, so you don't bother with a formal budget. However, I know better than to think you're not still living by some measure of limitations, or else you would overspend. I also believe this way of doing your money is only really possible for a higher earner. The avg person can't live this way and end well with money. They have to budget and set real limits.

I don't really expense track, I just plan and budget off categories and try to stick to that. I couldn't tell you how much I ate in just eating out last month, but I can tell you I hate eating out because of how little you get for your money vs eating at home so it is limited.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Not really. if you balance a checkbook properly and account every expenditure even if a check or atm or debit hasn't cleared you'll know what you have. To the penny.

So where would the overdraft. If you only have $300 cash left and you put the rest into mortgage, car, etc. And that's it until Friday payday then that's what you spend. And if you don't have any debits coming through.

This whole debit this is another reason DH and I don't do debit cards. We'd probably overdraft any given time.